The weekly Doan update: Are Sharks still in the hunt? “Yes, very much so,” says his agent

Decided late tonight to try and see if anything has changed as far as the ongoing courtship of Shane Doan by the Sharks (and who knows how many other teams at this point).

Basically, it’s the status quo: If Doan decides to leave Phoenix, his agent says the Sharks are among the contenders to land him.

“Yes, very much so,” responded Doan’s agent, Terry Bross, in an email exchange after I asked if the Sharks were still in the hunt. “He is very intrigued should things not work out here.”

Earlier, some reports said that Monday the 16th was a potential deadline for Doan to decide if he believed the effort by former Shark CEO Greg Jamison to buy the team and keep it in suburban Glendale was likely to succeed. Not the case, said Bross, adding there is no deadline or time frame at this point.

*****Bross came under fire in some circles last week for generating interest in several hockey markets by suggesting Doan might land there if things don’t look good in Phoenix. Sure, it’s in his best interest to drum up a competitive market for his client. Duh.

But he’s just doing his job. And, tonight at least, I’m doing mine by asking and passing along what he had to say.

Sharks general manager Doug Wilson, by the way, is sticking to his standard policy of not talking about any conversations he may or may not be having with other teams.

*****The opening volley by the NHL in its CBA negotiations with the players was an attention-getter last week. Lots of places online to catch up on the national reports if you missed them, including http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=400580

Yeah, I know bargaining talks always begin with each side asking for the impossible. Even so, you’d think the message this sends is precisely the wrong one, pushing the NHLPA to come up with the equivalent from the other side. Oh well, here comes the bumpy ride that nobody wanted.

David Pollak

David Pollak has been following the NHL forever and at the Mercury News as an editor or reporter since 1987. For almost a decade he wrote about the Sharks as the paper's Fan in the Stands before joining the sports department in 2001. He became the Sharks beat writer before the 2007-08 season and began this blog at that time. You can also follow him on Twitter at @PollakOnSharks.

“but you can bet your ugly teal sweaters that the organization will do what it takes to stay competitive.”

Man Jose Sharts,

Who cares? And competetive against who? Other bad and mediocre teams? Detroit sucks and are damn near borderline irrelevant. And I’m ok with that actually. Whack-a-mole owns Ken Holland right now. That has to be a bitter pill to swallow for any mouth-breathers in Winged Wheel Nation.

Cap-O-113

Agree with David here the 1st volley sent by the owners really puts the NHLPA in big time defense mode. The bumpy ride was not avoided

kingfish100

I don’t want Doan at any price, talk about bad chemistry!! No other player in recent history has had to resort to being so dirty to make up for his aging body than doan (doesn’t deserve CAPS). If you don’t know this you haven’t watched him. Sharks have a great reputation for not hiring goons or for getting rid of them once they see that in a player and didn’t realize it was there or would surface. doan will slew foot, spear, hook and hold more and more because of his arthritis and lack of gears.

FDW, the Sharks didn’t fire Greg Jamison and how many times do so many in here have to tell you you’re not wanted or respected before you leave to f something else up elsewhere. GWON NOW GITTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Beer League Rocks

Like Wall,

That was for hondr, not you.

Like Wall

BLR I hoped as much but I figured I had it coming since I was encouraging him.

Beer League Rocks

Like Wall,

Are you a goalie?

DumbPuck®

I wrote this on July 4th:

“hondr –

You are delusional. Ever look at the contracts signed by Bouwmeester, Campbell, Mark Streit, Komisarek, Redden, Timmonen, Wisniewski, Visnovsky and oh, never mind… I can keep listing them but these contracts were signed BEFORE DW ever signed Burns.

Oh, and another thing… The marketplace sets the standard for market price. Existing contracts are a baseline, but supply and demand drives price up.”

For the record, here are the yearly cap hits\G, A & +/- for the defensemen I named (all of whom signed BEFORE Burns):

Looking at this list, one can see that Burns’ contract is NOT OUT OF LINE with these, most of which were signed a year or more before Burns’ contract. And I will admit (was on record saying so one year ago, too) that Ian White contract was a great one for Detroit, especially when one compares his to the Shitbox pylon Ericsson, who makes a half million more $$ than White.

NoCupwithDW

@Cap-O 113,

The NHLPA in big time defense mode? Really? IMHO, the NHL is in big time defense mode. Bettman already knows he is outclassed and is trying to force the NHLPA’s hand. Not going to happen, Fehr is nothing, if not patient and will not reveal his hand until well down the negotiating path. Bettman’s feeble attempt at negotiating in the press will fail miserably.

As written in another post, my predictions of how the negotiations will go include the NHL buckling to the will of Fehr in Feb 2013.

Some pertinent highlights:
– Fehr has already done his homework. Not only does he have the last 5-8 years of published financials for the NHL, he has what he believes are the “real” numbers.
– Fehr will play Bettman like a piano. He will lead Bettman through a series of positive meetings, all bright and shiny, and reported with huge positive spin in the press. This results in fan support for the NHLPA. Fehr will agree to keep the season opening on schedule, that will be his big compromise towards unity.
– It is 1994 all over again. Fehr will recommend the players play the 2012-2013 season until some point after the winter classic. Again, generating lot’s of positive PR for the players.
-The players will strike in Feb or early March, resulting in the cancelling the remainder of the season and the post-season. This helps the players, as they get PAID at least 50% of the years salary. Lessening a players personal financial impact of a strike.

Fehr’s goals:
– break the cap
– lower the UFA age and yrs of service.
– remove the contract loophole allowing teams to buy out a player at 2/3rds of the remaining contract over twice the remaining duration.
– inclusion of additional revenue streams from the owners.
– force a revamped revenue sharing plan upon the NHL owner’s which helps the have nots keep their teams afloat.

The owners are completely outclassed, Fehr is better prepared then the NHL, has a better strategy then the NHL and has more patience then the NHL. His patience alone will wear down the NHL.

Anyway, just my thoughts and predictions.

Uncle Slavko

Thank you Kingfish and Clemenza for a good night’s battle on FDW and Hondr..

Do you know that FDW and Hondr have the same hockey mom? Yeah, Bobbi Whorr….

renoshark

“-The players will strike in Feb or early March, resulting in the cancelling the remainder of the season and the post-season.”

No Cup,

Don’t see that happenin’. That would be a disaster that neither side wants to see play out. There’s a better chance of MLBSF actually typing a coherent post than that scenario playing out IMO.

ZEKE

@reno — I can see that happening. Owners make a huge portion of their profit $$ from the postseason. Players make most of their $$ in the regular season. The leverage goes from owners to players as the season progresses. I can definitely see the players pushing the stop button in February if the deal isn’t a favorable one by then.

Spartan Bob

The Detroit News reports the Doan is asking for four years at 7.5 million a year…Ain’t going to happen here!!!

hondr

Heh. So that Burns deal is no longer a “great contract”, and now it’s just a “good contract”. I like how you noobs work, kid, making it up as you go along. This is even better than when you were flailing away trying to explain “puck possession”, kid. That was as funny a sight as I’ve seen in here, and there have been plenty. You give plenty of laughs, kid. 😉

As I say, son… it’s best if you stick to your fanboi sites and fantasy geek leagues. It’s probably good that you’re posting under another sockpuppet now, as that last nick got trashed pretty good, but it’s inevitable that your void of hockey knowledge is going to emerge, no matter which sockpuppet you post under. In any event, I’ll go ahead and ignore this latest sockpuppet as well as your other, since you present absolutely nothing of value or use hockey wise, no matter the sockpuppet used.

I do get a kick out of the Sharky homer loafs’ latest sacred cow infatuation, with the massively overpaid no-D turnover machine. Heck, I don’t blame whack-a-mole Wilson for doing what he does. If he can get the Sharky homer loafs and SJ media to sing his praises while he rebuilds the Minnesota Wild, more power to him. 😉

Like Wall

@ Beer League Rocks

I don’t play ice hockey, i am afraid. i played roller hockey for a bit but just with friends, no league stuff or anything remotely formal. Now I just play with my twins, who while only 7 are already better skaters than I am (both ice and roller). While I occassionly try and stop their shots, I don’t think that makes me a goalie.

If you are asking because of the monikor, I picked that because of my love for the little Latvian who played like wall.

Johnny San Jose

hondr # 63 — although you continually write about how bad DW does, it doesn’t change the FACT that the Sharks have dominated your beloved Wings for what three or four years now? What does that say about he direction of Detroit?

Pretty pathetic that you keep spouting off with the way the Sharks have dominated the last few years. Have some class and learn how to win and (in this case) lose with some tact.

tifososquali

Spartan Bob says: The Detroit News reports the Doan is asking for four years at 7.5 million a year…Ain’t going to happen here!!!

==========================================
well….if our PM gets paid $6.9M for his Houdini interpretations during the season and POs, I can see why Doan’s agent is aiming for $7.5M, especially after this past season/PO for the dogs.

I can’t see too many teams going after him for this kind of money, given his age, but there is always the Rangers.

I’m sure you are a very nice person, but I’m just carious as to why you care some much what goes on with the Sharks organization. Do you have family over here or are the Sharks your team when Detroit is out?
I’m just wondering.

hondr

Well, whack-a-mole Wilson’s flailing incompetence is an attention grabber, as incompetence with shelf life is always noteworthy. So as an academic exercise, it’s interesting.

And I have to admit, the Sharky homer loafs sorta got uppity when I dropped in here last Summer commenting on the recently whacked moles, and mentioned that those foolish moves were gonna run the Sharkys onto the Playoff bubble. The homer loafs whined then, but they’ve all kinda got the message by now, I’d guess, and I don’t mind reminding them of it if they haven’t. 😉

Buddy Elf

Dude still can’t spell Whac-a-Mole right?

God bless the Detroit education system.

hondr

…well far be it that anybody deign to explain the fine art of whack-a-mole-ism to you Sharky fans. Afterall, you and your boy Wilson have perfected it to a near science. 😉

Johnny San Jose

And that style continues to dominate the Red Wings. Ironic, eh?

JB

DP tweets that Matt Shaw has been hired by the Devils, but that news might be eclipsed by the hiring of Scott Stevens as a/c there as well.

ZEKE

so we traded Matt Shaw for Larry Robinson?

GP

Buddy, Detroit has an educational system? 😉

GP

Doan’s money…and the rumors of how much?

Not sure how anyone here actually evals the number. Don’t know how NHL teams eval that #. Don’t know how the player and agent eval that number either. You can bet Doan wants a chance to win first IMO.

There is a baseline, sort of: Teemu got 4.5M for 1 season, Wizard got same for 2 seasons in Dallas. If you say Doan is younger, well so what. He’s a grittier player than those two. And, IMO, once you get a certain age in the NHL, the line is quite blurred.

Hockeynut

Funny how some can declare the Redwings window “closed” but can’t see the Sharks window is not only closed, but painted shut. The RedWings are one or two players (and have the means and brains to get them) away from being a contender next season.

Sidebet to anyone who wants to take it: Redwings finish higher than our Sharks in the West.

DumbPuck™

I love that hondr merely ignores all relevent data that proves his ridiculous statements to be incorrect.

hondr

Uh huh, and I’m still waiting for whack-a-mole Wilson to deliver one final coup de grace personnel move, to match last Summer’s Minnesota disasters, and finish his roster demolition project. And it really should be with Minnesota again, by rights. And it should also involve another massive overpaid signing, to boot, preferably of the guy that they just donated massive assets to acquire, like before. 😉

DumbPuck®

Yeah, sort of like Ken Holland releasing Kyle Quincey to the waiver wire, then using assets to acquire him again so that he could join the fearsome top four, errr three, errr… yeah…. I’ll take the Sharks’ blueline over Detroit’s anyday…

Tom (fn Quinzee)

Even if Doan does come to the Sharks we are all going to be sitting around next April wondering what went wrong this year after another typical playoff disappointment and another vanishing act by Marleau.

hondr

No, nothing whack-a-mole Wilson does is “sort of like” anything a Stanley Cup caliber franchise does. Sorry. Whack-a-mole has done absolutely nothing, except drain Sharky fans’ pockets. And there’s still another stinker move left in that guy this Summer, I can just feel it.

It’s quiet. TOO quiet. 😉

skr213

#63. Wow. Hondr, if this were my blog, you’d be gone. Try having some respect for others. We can disagree without talking to each other like children … kid.

hondr

It’s not your blog. I wouldn’t want to be here if it was.

Young, stupid kids who sockpuppet around get exposed. Sorry if that offends your tender sensibilities, but there really is no other way to address young, stupid kids who are sockpuppeting.

skr213

Something tells me you *would* want to be here no matter who’s blog it is because you have an insatiable need to be heard.

hondr

Something tells me you are going to whine constantly about my posts, because you enjoy whining.